Great Scott!!!

Draco x wrote:On this, can anyone remind me of the reason why DC ditched the Matrix incarnation of the character many years ago in favor going back to the SG being Superman's cousin from Krypton again? I remember how they turned Matrix from being Lex Luthor's clone's concubine to being bonded with a dead teenager and then gave her demon/angel powers before she fell off the map.

Because the original Supergirl remains the longest-lived and most popular version of the character. She appeared in continuous print for 26 years. For the first 10, she had an 8-9 page backup feature in Action. Then she did a 45-issue or so stint headlining Adventure Comics with full sized stories. Then she got an ill fated title in her own name that lasted 10 issues (Supergirl "volume 1"). Then she headlined Superman Family for another 8 years or so, before finally getting her own series again for 23 issues. She was also his cousin in the (awful) movie starring Helen Slater. Therefore, the original is the best-known version of the character.

That original version is the one who died saving Superman's life in Crisis 7, in a scene that is usually cited as one of the, if not the, best deaths in comics, and was immortalized in the famous cover of Crisis 7 by George Perez.

"The Matrix" was viewed as an impostor by most of the fans for a long time. When Peter David took over, he merged the artificial Matrix being with a human woman named Linda Danvers. This was done as a way to mollify the fans of the original, because Linda Danvers was the secret identity eventually adopted by the original Supergirl. David also used the merger as an excuse to change the Matrix powers to be more in line with the original Supergirl's (he got rid of invisibility, shape-shifting, etc).

The problems with the Matrix version of Supergirl, however, were two-fold. First, her origin was complex and difficult to understand, and had been messed with a lot over the years. Artificial being from a pocket dimension, merged with another person, turned into an angel, etc, etc. Second, and probably most significantly, DC was never able to convince the lion's share of original Supergirl fans to get on board with the Matrix character. No matter what Peter David did or how good his series was, many people never considered the character to be "truly" Supergirl because she wasn't Kal-El's cousin, Jor-El's niece, etc. Peter David at one point estimated that roughly half of all Supergirl fans refused to even try his series because of it (which is why, when the sales started to falter in 2002, he brought the original back as a guest star - to try and attract those stubborn Kara fans).

Believe it or not I was not one of those people. I tried Peter David's Supergirl, and I liked it enough to follow it. I respected the nods he was trying to make to the original character, and her personality was so similar to the original that it was often easy to forget that she wasn't the same person. In fact David's Supergirl, despite being unrelated to Superman biologically, was FAR closer in personality, behavior, and all the ways that matter, to the original, than any of the Karas since.

However, because of those two reasons mentioned above (convoluted backstory and enmity toward matrix from the fans of Kara), DC decided to bring the original idea back in 2004 with the Superman/Batman story written by Jeff Loeb. They changed a bunch of things, like having her be chronologically older but physically younger than Superman. But they kept the part about her being from Krypton, and his cousin. And that's why she's his cousin today.

Great Scott!!!

Draco x wrote:On this, can anyone remind me of the reason why DC ditched the Matrix incarnation of the character many years ago in favor going back to the SG being Superman's cousin from Krypton again? I remember how they turned Matrix from being Lex Luthor's clone's concubine to being bonded with a dead teenager and then gave her demon/angel powers before she fell off the map.

Because the original Supergirl remains the longest-lived and most popular version of the character. She appeared in continuous print for 26 years. For the first 10, she had an 8-9 page backup feature in Action. Then she did a 45-issue or so stint headlining Adventure Comics with full sized stories. Then she got an ill fated title in her own name that lasted 10 issues (Supergirl "volume 1"). Then she headlined Superman Family for another 8 years or so, before finally getting her own series again for 23 issues. She was also his cousin in the (awful) movie starring Helen Slater. Therefore, the original is the best-known version of the character.

That original version is the one who died saving Superman's life in Crisis 7, in a scene that is usually cited as one of the, if not the, best deaths in comics, and was immortalized in the famous cover of Crisis 7 by George Perez.

"The Matrix" was viewed as an impostor by most of the fans for a long time. When Peter David took over, he merged the artificial Matrix being with a human woman named Linda Danvers. This was done as a way to mollify the fans of the original, because Linda Danvers was the secret identity eventually adopted by the original Supergirl. David also used the merger as an excuse to change the Matrix powers to be more in line with the original Supergirl's (he got rid of invisibility, shape-shifting, etc).

The problems with the Matrix version of Supergirl, however, were two-fold. First, her origin was complex and difficult to understand, and had been messed with a lot over the years. Artificial being from a pocket dimension, merged with another person, turned into an angel, etc, etc. Second, and probably most significantly, DC was never able to convince the lion's share of original Supergirl fans to get on board with the Matrix character. No matter what Peter David did or how good his series was, many people never considered the character to be "truly" Supergirl because she wasn't Kal-El's cousin, Jor-El's niece, etc. Peter David at one point estimated that roughly half of all Supergirl fans refused to even try his series because of it (which is why, when the sales started to falter in 2002, he brought the original back as a guest star - to try and attract those stubborn Kara fans).

Believe it or not I was not one of those people. I tried Peter David's Supergirl, and I liked it enough to follow it. I respected the nods he was trying to make to the original character, and her personality was so similar to the original that it was often easy to forget that she wasn't the same person. In fact David's Supergirl, despite being unrelated to Superman biologically, was FAR closer in personality, behavior, and all the ways that matter, to the original, than any of the Karas since.

However, because of those two reasons mentioned above (convoluted backstory and enmity toward matrix from the fans of Kara), DC decided to bring the original idea back in 2004 with the Superman/Batman story written by Jeff Loeb. They changed a bunch of things, like having her be chronologically older but physically younger than Superman. But they kept the part about her being from Krypton, and his cousin. And that's why she's his cousin today.

YOU WILL NEED A NURSE

Chessack wrote:Because the original Supergirl remains the longest-lived and most popular version of the character. She appeared in continuous print for 26 years. For the first 10, she had an 8-9 page backup feature in Action. Then she did a 45-issue or so stint headlining Adventure Comics with full sized stories. Then she got an ill fated title in her own name that lasted 10 issues (Supergirl "volume 1"). Then she headlined Superman Family for another 8 years or so, before finally getting her own series again for 23 issues. She was also his cousin in the (awful) movie starring Helen Slater. Therefore, the original is the best-known version of the character.

That original version is the one who died saving Superman's life in Crisis 7, in a scene that is usually cited as one of the, if not the, best deaths in comics, and was immortalized in the famous cover of Crisis 7 by George Perez.

"The Matrix" was viewed as an impostor by most of the fans for a long time. When Peter David took over, he merged the artificial Matrix being with a human woman named Linda Danvers. This was done as a way to mollify the fans of the original, because Linda Danvers was the secret identity eventually adopted by the original Supergirl. David also used the merger as an excuse to change the Matrix powers to be more in line with the original Supergirl's (he got rid of invisibility, shape-shifting, etc).

The problems with the Matrix version of Supergirl, however, were two-fold. First, her origin was complex and difficult to understand, and had been messed with a lot over the years. Artificial being from a pocket dimension, merged with another person, turned into an angel, etc, etc. Second, and probably most significantly, DC was never able to convince the lion's share of original Supergirl fans to get on board with the Matrix character. No matter what Peter David did or how good his series was, many people never considered the character to be "truly" Supergirl because she wasn't Kal-El's cousin, Jor-El's niece, etc. Peter David at one point estimated that roughly half of all Supergirl fans refused to even try his series because of it (which is why, when the sales started to falter in 2002, he brought the original back as a guest star - to try and attract those stubborn Kara fans).

Believe it or not I was not one of those people. I tried Peter David's Supergirl, and I liked it enough to follow it. I respected the nods he was trying to make to the original character, and her personality was so similar to the original that it was often easy to forget that she wasn't the same person. In fact David's Supergirl, despite being unrelated to Superman biologically, was FAR closer in personality, behavior, and all the ways that matter, to the original, than any of the Karas since.

However, because of those two reasons mentioned above (convoluted backstory and enmity toward matrix from the fans of Kara), DC decided to bring the original idea back in 2004 with the Superman/Batman story written by Jeff Loeb. They changed a bunch of things, like having her be chronologically older but physically younger than Superman. But they kept the part about her being from Krypton, and his cousin. And that's why she's his cousin today.

YOU WILL NEED A NURSE

Chessack wrote:Because the original Supergirl remains the longest-lived and most popular version of the character. She appeared in continuous print for 26 years. For the first 10, she had an 8-9 page backup feature in Action. Then she did a 45-issue or so stint headlining Adventure Comics with full sized stories. Then she got an ill fated title in her own name that lasted 10 issues (Supergirl "volume 1"). Then she headlined Superman Family for another 8 years or so, before finally getting her own series again for 23 issues. She was also his cousin in the (awful) movie starring Helen Slater. Therefore, the original is the best-known version of the character.

That original version is the one who died saving Superman's life in Crisis 7, in a scene that is usually cited as one of the, if not the, best deaths in comics, and was immortalized in the famous cover of Crisis 7 by George Perez.

"The Matrix" was viewed as an impostor by most of the fans for a long time. When Peter David took over, he merged the artificial Matrix being with a human woman named Linda Danvers. This was done as a way to mollify the fans of the original, because Linda Danvers was the secret identity eventually adopted by the original Supergirl. David also used the merger as an excuse to change the Matrix powers to be more in line with the original Supergirl's (he got rid of invisibility, shape-shifting, etc).

The problems with the Matrix version of Supergirl, however, were two-fold. First, her origin was complex and difficult to understand, and had been messed with a lot over the years. Artificial being from a pocket dimension, merged with another person, turned into an angel, etc, etc. Second, and probably most significantly, DC was never able to convince the lion's share of original Supergirl fans to get on board with the Matrix character. No matter what Peter David did or how good his series was, many people never considered the character to be "truly" Supergirl because she wasn't Kal-El's cousin, Jor-El's niece, etc. Peter David at one point estimated that roughly half of all Supergirl fans refused to even try his series because of it (which is why, when the sales started to falter in 2002, he brought the original back as a guest star - to try and attract those stubborn Kara fans).

Believe it or not I was not one of those people. I tried Peter David's Supergirl, and I liked it enough to follow it. I respected the nods he was trying to make to the original character, and her personality was so similar to the original that it was often easy to forget that she wasn't the same person. In fact David's Supergirl, despite being unrelated to Superman biologically, was FAR closer in personality, behavior, and all the ways that matter, to the original, than any of the Karas since.

However, because of those two reasons mentioned above (convoluted backstory and enmity toward matrix from the fans of Kara), DC decided to bring the original idea back in 2004 with the Superman/Batman story written by Jeff Loeb. They changed a bunch of things, like having her be chronologically older but physically younger than Superman. But they kept the part about her being from Krypton, and his cousin. And that's why she's his cousin today.